


You’re so hot... no, seriously, I think you have a fever.

by Elizandre



Series: Tropevember! [11]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: 30 Days of Writing, Caring Loke, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Illness, Internalized Homophobia, Loke is a panicked gay, M/M, Rare Pairings, Sick Character, Sickfic, Soft Natsu Dragneel, Tropes, Tropevember, tropevember challenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:09:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27512860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elizandre/pseuds/Elizandre
Summary: Natsu is ill and the whole team is heading out on a mission. Lucy suggests asking one of her spirits to look after him while they’re gone and Natsu agrees as long as it’s not Virgo...‘Shaking herself out of it, Lucy speaks the incantation, slashing the golden key towards the ground. A flash of brilliant light blinds the boy, making his already spotty vision even worse.Groaning as another wave of nausea hits him, he’s surprised to feel a cool hand on his forehead.“Shit... you look rough, Natsu,” his old friend’s voice caresses his ears, making him grin through the pain.“Thanks, handsome,” he chuckles, staring into eyes covered by tinted blue sunglasses. “It’s nice to see you too, Loke.”’(Written for Tropevember 2020, Day 10: Sickfic)
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Loke
Series: Tropevember! [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995202
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	You’re so hot... no, seriously, I think you have a fever.

“But WHYYYYY?!” Natsu complains from his place bundled up on the sofa, eyes wide and pleading as he stares at Lucy, who shakes her head in exasperation.

“You’re sick, Natsu! You can barely even get up to go to the toilet, never mind go on a mission!” He replies, rolling her eyes at her friend.

“But LUCYYYYY!” He tries again, even though he’s not actually making any attempts to get up off the sofa - he knows he can’t go on the mission, that he’d be a liability... but that doesn’t mean he can’t complain about them going on one without him!

“No, Natsu! You’ll cope, I’m sure,” she jokes, fluffing his blankets one more, giving his hair a gentle stroke.

“But you’re taking Happy with you! Stealing my own cat from me when I’m sick and fragile! Shame on you all!” He claims dramatically, pointing a shaky finger at the blonde who is quickly losing her temper. She already feels guilty about leaving their teammate behind, but they need the money - and it’s not like he’s never gone on missions without her before!

“Natsu...” she sighs, shaking her head. “Happy WANTS to come with us! We aren’t stealing him away.”

“But... he’s my cat...” Natsu whispers, eyes wide and betrayed, the sight making Lucy sad. She knows the two are practically inseparable... but this is Happy’s choice.

“He’s going to confess to Carla, Natsu. You know how much of eachothers time you take up when you go on missions together! He needs the space to ask her out and spend some time with her without their dragonslayer’s interrupting them!” She explains.

“I know, I know! I get it... it’s just... He usually looks after me when I’m ill, y’know?” He mumbles, embarrassed at how reliant he is on his own cat.

“Oh...” Lucy breathes, eyes widening in understanding. Of course! He’s ill and can barely move - it’s no wonder he’s sad Happy is leaving, he’s worried that there will be no one to look after him. She could ask someone at the guild to check on him before she leaves... but... “I could summon one of my spirits if you would like?” She offers.

“What? Why would you do that?” Natsu asks with a confused frown which she finds helplessly endearing. He’s cute when he’s sick.

“So that you have someone to look after you!” She exclaims happily, proud of herself for coming up with a solution.

“Won’t they just disappear when you leave, though?” He asks, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“Hmm, maybe. If they decide to look after you of their own free will, then they can stay for a while, though! Plus, we’ll only be gone for a couple of days - a week, max! They should be able to stay for that long!” Lucy explains.

“Huh... I didn’t know that.” Natsu admits, shaking his head, messing up his already ruffled, pink hair. “So... they need to WANT to look after me?” He asks.

“Pretty much! Most of them are pretty fond of you, Natsu! You’ve helped most of them out before! I’m sure one of them will volunteer if I ask,” she says confidently.

“I mean, I guess so... who do you have in mind?” He asks with a cough, burrowing further into the blankets wrapped around him. He doesn’t mind most of Lucy’s spirits; Aries is sweet and Gemini can be funny, though he’s not so sure about—

“We could ask Virgo? She is a maid, after all—”

“No! Not Virgo! Anyone but Virgo!” He begs, rising from the sofa, only to flop back down, cringing as the room starts to spin and a wave of nausea hits him. The spirit means well, but outside of battle, she can be a little aggressive. He doesn’t want to get punched though the floor when she tries to take his temperature.

“O-kay... not Virgo then...” Lucy says slowly. “Hmm... Taurus is out, and Cancer only really cares about fashion... I suppose we could ask Leo?” She suggests, brow creasing with thought.

“Huh. Yeah... I haven’t seen that bastard in a while!” Natsu says, perking up at the thought of spending some time with his old pal, Loke. “You think he’ll agree to it, though?”

“Hmmm,” Lucy hums in thought, tapping her chin. “He’ll probably be a little annoyed - I mean, he is a celestial spirit, after all... but you guys were friends, right?”

“Yeah... I miss the guy,” Natsu admits, surprised to realise he’s telling the truth. He doesn’t think about it often, but he misses his friend a lot - they knew eachother for years, and then suddenly he was gone.

“I’ll summon him now,” Lucy says, voice soft as she stares at Natsu, head tilted to the side, clearly thinking about something deeply.

Shaking herself out of it, she speaks the incantation and waves the key around, before a flash of light blinds him, making his already spotty vision even worse.

Groaning as another wave of nausea hits him, he’s surprised to feel a cool hand on his forehead.

“Shit... you look rough, Natsu,” his old friend’s voice caresses his ears, making him grin through the pain.

“Thanks, handsome,” he chuckles, staring at eyes covered by tinted blue sunglasses. “It’s nice to see you too.”

Chuckling along, Leo crouches down by the sofa and runs a hand through his pink waves. “You always were a baby when you were ill,” he jokes, lightening the mood in the room, which has been pretty somber when he first got ill the night before. 

“Uh... Leo?” Lucy’s hesitant voice breaks in, stopping whatever Natsu had been about to say. Turning to the blonde, they watch as a slight blush creeps onto her cheeks. 

“Yeah, gorgeous?” He drawls, a smirk tugging at his lips, erasing the concerned expression that he had been wearing before.

“Umm... so, Natsu is ill...” she states slowly.

“Yeah, I gathered,” he sarks, sending a grin Natsu’s way.

“Well... the team are going on a mission and Happy is coming with us...” she continues, and Loke is starting to see where this is going. 

“So there’s no one to look after him?” He surmises, the smile dropping from his face, making Lucy bite her lip with worry.

“I mean, we could ask at the guild. I’m sure Elfman or Levy would be more than happy to come and check on him,” she says, watching him intently for some kind of reaction, but his blank face gives nothing away. “But we figured maybe we’d ask one of my spirits first? Since you guys don’t really sleep or anything...” she admits, now seeming a little sheepish.

Holding back his emotions honestly takes him a lot of effort. Leo likes Lucy, he does, but she can be real selfish sometimes. Had she asked him to look after anyone else, he would have left before she’d even finished explaining - they aren’t a babysitting service, for fucks sake! - but it’s not anyone else... it’s Natsu, one of his friends.

Sighing, he turns to look at the pink-haired boy, who is honestly looking pretty pathetic right now. He wasn’t lying when he’d said the boy looks rough. I mean, he’s not usually a pinnacle for cleanliness, but he has a rugged, handsomeness about him that keeps him looking pretty good most of the time, but now...

“Yeah, alright,” he gives in, smiling when the boy sends him a grateful smile. Winking in return, he turns back to the blonde and hardens his features. “But this is a one time thing. Im the most powerful celestial spirit, not a servant - I’m only doing this ‘cause the idiot looks like he’s keel over and die if left unattended.”

Sighing in relief, Lucy smiles at the spirit. “Of course! Thank you, so much, Leo!” She says gratefully, lessening the sting to his ego. Like he said, he likes the girl, he just wishes she would use her spirits for... better reasons, sometimes. 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You’d better hurry up if you don’t wanna miss that mission,” he says, waving a hand dismissively as he stands up, heading into the kitchen to rummage through Natsu’s cupboards. He’s pleasantly surprised to find a decent amount of food in them - maybe Erza went shopping for him, he thinks, laughing lightly when he finds some cake in the fridge - definitely Erza. 

“We’ll be back as soon as we can, Natsu,” he hears Lucy’s quiet voice murming from behind him. Turning, he frowns when he spots the blonde pressing a kiss to the dragonslayers forehead. “I’ll keep an eye on Happy for you.”

The boy nods his thanks, smiling when the girl tugs the blankets up around his head until only his eyes and a couple of pink wisps can be seen. Walking back in, he pulls an armchair closer to the side of the sofa where Natsu’s head is and settles in, giving Lucy a salute when she points a finger at him. 

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t vomit on the floor,” he says blandly, trying not to laugh when her frown deepens.

“Leo...” she says warningly.

“He’ll be fineee, stop worrying and get going,” he says flippantly, not ready to reveal to the blonde just how worried he is about Natsu.

Continuing to frown, but having nothing else to say, she eventually sighs and heads towards the door, turning once there to wave at her teammate. “Get well soon, Natsu,” she says fondly, before leaving, the door closing softly behind her.

Letting out a quiet sigh of his own, he drops his mask of indifference and lets his worry show once more, leaning over the arm of the sofa to hover over Natsu, who he can tell is smiling, even though he cant see his mouth, tiny crows feel forming at the side of his eyes.

“Well, I can’t say this is how I expected today to go,” he quips.

A muffled reply that he cant hear comes from under the blankets, so he carefully peels the material back from the boys face, raising his eyebrows in question. 

Flushing at the close contact, Natsu says again, “I didn’t expect it either... but I’m not mad about it,” his eyes darting to the wall behind Loke.

“I’m not mad about it either, Natsu,” he says with a fond smile. No matter what anyone says about the hothead, Leo knows that he’s a selfless guy. Asking for his help was probably a big thing for him.

“You aren’t?” He asks quietly. “Because it’s cool of you wanna go back to... celestial land or wherever your from,” he says, making Leo laugh. “I wouldn’t tell Lucy you bailed.”

“Natsu... I wouldn’t leave you here to suffer on your own. You’re my... friend,” he admits, stumbling over the title that doesn’t really fit.

“Yeah... yeah, you’re right!” Natsu says, visibly brightening at the admission and it takes everything Loke has not to wince. “And friends look after eachother!”

“That they do,” he replies softly. “So I guess you’re stuck with me till Lucy gets back.”

“Oh, what a hardship!” He says dramatically, making Leo smile properly. 

“Yeah, for me, maybe! Looking after your sorry ass! Don’t tell me I’ve gotta help you shower!” He quips, fighting off a smile as the other blushes as pink as his hair.

“Pfft! You wish you could see these goods,” he jokes back and they easily fall back into their casual banter and flirting.

Watching the dragonslayer smile and blush at him in a way he hasn’t since Leo was ‘alive’, the spirit can only pray that Lucy gets back quickly, or he might just end up ruining everything, by admitting he’s been madly in love with the pink-haired boy for years now...

Yep. This is going to be a disaster.


End file.
